Bush cooking: How to make Roothy's Rhino Rissoles

Rhino's an old mate from the bike days. He's German-born, but once he got to Australia more than half a lifetime ago he quickly realised he was far better suited to the hard working, industrious, disciplined way of life we live here under the Southern Cross than that lazy, laidback kind of existence the Germans are known for...

So he bought a Toyota Trayback, built himself a canopy, put on his best set of things and started spending as much time as he could camped out bush or exploring new beaches.

Every now and then he'd do some work to pay the bills, but the freedom of this great big land and the wonderful weather kept calling to him.

Even now he's retained a whole lot of his heritage and whenever we talk cooking he's usually got a recipe or two he remembers from 'the old country'. Something like 20 years ago I first sampled his rissoles made to a recipe he'd learnt from his mum.

Roothy vs rissoles:
John Rooth and the boys check out camp-cooked rhino rissoles and offer a challenge to a multinational giant.

Up until then I'd have never thought of putting pork and beef together in anything other than a mixed grill, but ever since I've been playing with different combinations; the results are always good. Yep, another case of breaking the rules as you know them to come up with something better. And I note that now some butchers even sell pork and beef mince combined, which means a few of them must have tried it too!

After almost 25 years and 750,000km punting that same old 47 Series Trayback, Rhino got sick of crawling along in a smoke cloud and bought a Nissan Patrol. Probably so he could feel at home crawling along in a smoke cloud...

But the Nissan dealer insulted him by offering $500 trade in on the Tojo so he gave it to me and I used it as the basis for the Red Truck that some of you might remember.

Like that truck I've taken Rhino's mum's recipe and changed it around without actually improving it, based on what's lying around at the time. So here goes:

First thing you've got to do is mix up the mince and with two different consistencies of meat to play with. It's not as easy as it sounds.

I reckon not much beats a big bowl and a blunt knife for this sort of job, but if you're the touchy feely sort of guy - or girl - then dive right in and use your hands. It's nice at this stage to add some finely chopped onions to the mix too, but knowing Gleno likes a truckload of fried onions on his burgers I got him to chop up a heap and fry them in a pan on the barby instead.

In goes the curry powder, a decent dash of salt, soy or oyster sauce (depending what form of salt you've got in your tucker box; I felt pretty flash with some pink Himalayan rock salt, must have been left over from the Handbrake's last barby) and a shot of worcestershire too.

If you've got it. Like all my recipes you can leave stuff out at any time or swap it for what you've got and the only difference will be taking a few extra trips to the fridge to get it tasting just right.

Anthony Warry

A shot of honey's always the go to sweeten up the plot and shortly after that with everything nicely mixed it's a good time to crack in the eggs. Breadcrumbs are good to dry out a wet mix but that's a call you can't make until about now.

From there it's a short but messy job to roll them into patties and then on to an oiled barbecue or hot pan. They're particularly good grilled on a Weber style cooker but hey, ours came smoke flavoured and went down a treat! Once the lads had added their favourites sauces that is.

Anthony Warry

Served? With whatever you want in a hamburger I guess. Everything that is except that stupid clown.